Rainbow Warrior, Egan’s

Pattern Description:

The Rainbow Warrior is the creation from Lance Egan of Utah. This little non-descript bug came on the scene a few years ago and immediately caused a stir among anglers and fish alike. The tungsten bead adds the perfect amount of weight to this bug as a dropper in a dry/dropper rig and the rainbow of colors emanating from the pearl body and rainbow dubbing create a fish catching dynamic that is tough to beat. The best part of this fly? A monkey could tie it. I mean, a monkey with relatively good hand/eye coordination could. Probably.

Materials Needed:
Hook: TMC 2457 #14-20
Bead: Silver Tungsten, sized to hook
Thread: UNI 8/0 Red
Tail: Pheasant Tail Fibers
Abdomen: Pearl Tinsel, medium
Wingcase: Stub End of Pearl Tinsel from abdomen
Thorax: Wapsi SowScud Dubbing, Rainbow

Step 1
Place the bead on the hook and slide it up to the eye of the hook. Start the tying thread behind the bead and wrap a thread base back to the bend of the hook as shown.


Step 2
Peel about a half dozen pheasant tail fibers from the tail and even their tips. Measure these tips against the shank so they are equal to about half a shank length long and tie them in at the bend of the hook as shown.


Step 3
Wrap forward over the butt ends of the pheasant tail fibers to just behind the bead and clip the excess.


Step 4
Tie in a strip of Pearl Tinsel just behind the bead. Wrap back over the tinsel to the base of the tail. Bring the thread back to the front of the hook, forming a smooth, slightly tapered thread base.


Step 5
Wrap the tinsel forward in slightly overlapping turns to the back of the bead. Tie the tinsel off with a couple tight turns of thread.


Step 6
Pull the remaining tinsel back over the top of the abdomen…


Step 7
…and tie it down flat on top of the hook. Wrap back over the tinsel wingcase to just in front of the halfway point.


Step 8
Dub a round thorax from the back edge of the bead to the base of the wingcase and back again.


Step 9
Pull the Tinsel over the thorax and tie it down at the very back edge of the bead with a couple tight wraps of thread.


Step 10
Pull the stub end of the tinsel back over the top of the wingcase and bind it in place with the thread. Folding the tinsel like this will keep it from pulling out. Clip the excess flash as close to the bead as you can.


Step 11
Whip finish and clip the thread. You’re done. You deserve a banana!